Trinity Sunday - A Homily

When I read novels, I often like to read mysteries.  I think I got it from my dad.  He loved the Nero Wolf detective novels.  They were written by, Rex Stout.  Rex Stout is a Kansan from Topeka, right down the road from us. 

A good mystery novel makes me look for hints, to notice people and examine details.  I try to look with fresh eyes.  Correctly solving the mystery is a joy.  I always like that part.

Today we celebrate the Most Holy Trinity.  We celebrate a divine mystery.  How can there be One God, Three co-equal persons, yet perfect undivided Unity?  I give up.  It is a mystery… that is unsolvable.  My questions are insufficient to hold the reality of the Truth.   

Yet, a Divine Unsolvable Mystery, even if unsolved is still useful. Contemplating the mystery of the Trinity causes me to look more closely at God’s actions in my life.  I want to understand you more fully, my brothers, and sisters.  Among us are clues to God’s truth.

When I contemplate a divine mystery, I typically do it while praying the Rosary.  You do that already.  The Joyful Mysteries, the Luminous Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, the Glorious Mysteries.  So, allow me to put my contemplations on the Trinity into the form of a Rosary.  If we are praying the Rosary regularly, there is no harm in using it to contemplate other mysteries of faith.

The first mystery of the Trinity is in our reading from Deuteronomy.  God is one.  There is no other God besides our God.  As Christians, like the Jewish people, we accept that there is only one God.  That God is Yahweh. 

Yet, God had to give Moses a commandment to not make idols to other gods.  It comes so naturally.  I make idols to work, to money, to cars.  Sometimes, I think I am smarter than God.  I make myself a false god.  Perhaps you do as well.  The mystery to contemplate on this Rosary decade: “Why do we follow false gods when we know better?” 

The second Trinity Mystery is that the One God is Three Persons.  This is a Christian understanding.  Yet, the Old Testament points to this revelation.  God the Creator of the Universe, God the Redeemer of Israel, God the Spirit that Renews the Face of the Earth.  After his resurrection, on the Road to Emmaus, Jesus taught the disciples of how the scriptures point to him.  Then in the breaking of the bread, he is made known to them, fully.

In this decade, we pray for wisdom through the Eucharist.  With that wisdom, we seek the signs among us of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The third Rosary mystery: We are Formed in God’s Image.  We are complicated people.  We rarely are one thing or even of one mind.  Yet, we are one person. 

I have never met a person yet who could be reduced a statement that fit on a bumper sticker.  Yet, we have labels attached to us throughout our lives.  Some may be accurate, some not, some are stereotypes, and some are brutally cruel.  And yet, we all are so much more.  We have a problem in our society that people are labeled by race and other factors.  Those labels have economic and personal consequences.  Addressing and overcoming those consequences is serious business.

Yet, it is obvious to me that our common human condition overrides any label.  We all are born and we all shall die.  We are distinguished our actions between those two points, birth and death.  We are finite people, yet we strain beyond ourselves, toward the infinite in which we are formed.

Our prayer for this decade is: “Help me Lord to help all my brother and sister transcend their circumstances and become more fully the transcendent image of God.”

The fourth mystery is simple.  It is our Psalm.  God has chosen us.  God has chosen us to be God’s own people.  Jesus came that we might know the Father and have the Spirit.  We stand on holy ground.  God chose us to be contained within the Love of the Trinity. 

My contemplation on this Rosary decade is, “How can I more fully accept God’s choice?”  What holds you back from crying out with our whole heart, “Abba, Father!”?

The fifth and final mystery is Divine Mercy.  This personally is the sensation of God that I feel most strongly.  This Triune God has shown me mercy.  Jesus came to show us the Father. We put him to death.  And yet, his first words after resurrection are “Peace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Jesus’ forgiveness after the crucifixion is a mercy beyond all understanding.  It is a mystery of Mercy that is Divine. 

In our contemplation, we ask ourselves, “How can we be merciful to others as we have received mercy from God?”

That’s it.  The Rosary Mysteries of the Trinity: 1) God is One, 2) God is Three, 3) We are in God’s Image, 4) God chose us, 4) We receive Divine Mercy from a Triune God.  This week, please, take some time with the Rosary.  Pray on the mysteries of the Trinity. Yes, they are unsolvable, but they still are useful. 

I ask you to take extra time on the last mystery.  Knowing the Trinity means little if it does not change our heart.  How can we show greater mercy in our life this week?

For other examinations of the Holy Trinity, please see these articles in Catholic 365:

The Blessed Trinity, The Essence of the Trinity, and The Holy Trinity.